Still no Club for Growth endorsement

Lack of support could doom Hoogendyk's challenge of Upton

With Michigan's primary election just three weeks away, Kalamazoo's Jack Hoogendyk has yet to receive an endorsement from the Washington-based conservative group Club for Growth.

That's bad news for Hoogendyk, who's challenging for the second time in two years well-entrenched U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, and who was touted by Club for Growth just six months ago as the more conservative candidate.

A former three-term state representative, Hoogendyk surprised many in 2010 by picking up 43 percent of the vote despite his lack of name recognition and the fact he was out-spent more than 30-to-1. In January, shortly after Club for Growth's political action committee Club for Growth Action funded television advertisements painting Upton with a liberal brush, Hoogendyk announced he'd once again challenge Upton.

But if he was counting on a boost in his war chest from Club for Growth, which recently spent some $1.2 million to derail veteran Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, it doesn't appear it'll be forthcoming. Chris Chocola, the president of Club for Growth and a colleague of Upton when Chocola served as Indiana's 2nd District congressman, was noncommittal in a Tribune interview last month.

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"We're still looking at it. It's a matter of resources,'' he said.

Perhaps telling was another Chocola comment that Upton of late had recorded higher Club ratings as far as his House votes. A recent Club scorecard based on 45 votes on amendments to cut spending revealed Upton support for 37, giving him an 82 percent rating.

Chocola couldn't be reached for comment last week but Club for Growth spokesman Barney Keller reported no new developments regarding Hoogendyk's candidacy. Asked if an endorsement might yet be extended, he wouldn't commit to one.

"Sometimes we make endorsements, sometimes we don't,'' he said.

Contacted last week, Hoogendyk said he had met twice with Club for Growth, initially in November, but he has yet to receive support from its PAC. Although time is running out, he held out hope it might still endorse him and come out with a two-week blitz as the race nears the wire.

Should that not occur, he said he has raised twice the money he did in 2010. He admitted, however, that the amount is just $120,000, or far short of Upton's total.

"He might have $4 million. We'll see,'' he said.

The target of a series of critical mailings distributed by Upton's camp, Hoogendyk termed "ridiculous'' claims that he's soft on sex offenders and drunken drivers. He stood by his stance that he never voted for a tax increase in Lansing, despite Upton mailings to the contrary, but be admitted supporting a tax hike as a county commissioner.

"I've regretted it ever since,'' he said.

A supporter of term limits, right-to-work legislation and former GOP presidential contender Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan (a 9 percent business flat tax, 9 percent personal flat tax and 9 percent national sales tax), Hoogendyk was critical of Upton, a 13-term congressman, primarily for his votes to expand government. The latest example, he said, was highway/student loan/flood insurance legislation that includes a $15 billion boost in annual costs.

"How long are we going to keep doing it?'' he said of the escalating federal debt. "That bill has got pork in it like you can't imagine.''

Club for Growth had called for the measure's defeat, yet it passed the House 373-52. Still, the organization has remained silent on Michigan's 6th Congressional District primary.

Can Hoogendyk win without Club support.? No, says Bill Ballenger, publisher of the political newsletter Inside Michigan Politics. Also, he seriously doubts, Ballenger said last week, that Club for Growth will endorse a candidate this late in the campaign.